A powder tower (german: Pulverturm), occasionally also powder house (''Pulverhaus''), was a building used by the

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

or by

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...

companies, frequently a

tower A tower is a tall structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting structures. Towers are specifi ...

, to store

gunpowder Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). Th ...

or, later, explosives. They were common until the 20th century, but were increasingly succeeded by

gunpowder magazine A gunpowder magazine is a magazine (building) designed to store the explosive gunpowder in wooden barrels for safety. Gunpowder, until superseded, was a universal explosive used in the military and for civil engineering: both applications ...

s and ammunition depots. The explosion of a powder tower could be catastrophic as, for example, in the

Delft Explosion Delft () is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, and The Hague, to the northwest. Together with them, it is part of both the Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan ...

of 1654. Buildings formerly used as powder towers include the following: * Langer Turm, Aachen * Pulvertürmchen in Aachen * Pulverturm, Andernach * Pulverturm, Anklam * Pulverturm, Bad Bentheim * Pulverturm, Bad Reichenhall * Bremer Pulvertürme * Pulverturm, Burghausen * Malteserturm in

Chur , neighboring_municipalities= Arosa, Churwalden, Tschiertschen-Praden, Domat/Ems, Felsberg, Malix, Trimmis, Untervaz, Pfäfers , twintowns = Bad Homburg (Germany), Cabourg (France), Mayrhofen (Austria), Mondorf-les-Bains (Luxe ...

* Knochenturm in Einbeck * Pulverturm, Greiz * Färberturm, Gunzenhausen * Pulverturm, Hameln * Pulverturm, Johanngeorgenstadt * Pulverturm, Jena * Pulverturm, Krems * Pulverturm, Leutkirch im Allgäu * Pulverturm, Lindau * Pulverturm Lingen, Ems * Pulverturm, Linz am Rhein * Pulverturm, Mainz * Pulverturm, Memmingen * Pulverturm, Merano * Pulverturm, Meschede * Pulverturm, Munich * Buddenturm in

Münster Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state di ...

* Pulverturm, Ochsenfurt * Pulverturm, Oldenburg * Powder Tower, Otjimbingwe,

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

* Powder Tower, Prague (''Prašná brána'') * Pulverturm, Quedlinburg * Pulverturm, Rheinberg * Powder Tower, Riga (''Pulvertornis'') * Pulverturm, Schlanders * Pulverturm, Straubing * Pulverturm, Templin * Pulverturm, Vellberg * Pulverturm, Wiedenbrück * Pulverturm, Zofingen * Pulverturm in

Zwickau Zwickau (; is, with around 87,500 inhabitants (2020), the fourth-largest city of Saxony after Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz and it is the seat of the Zwickau District. The West Saxon city is situated in the valley of the Zwickau Mulde (German: ...

The Pulverturm, Demmin, bears the name, but was probably not used for this purpose.

Gallery

Prague 07-2016 View from Old Town Hall Tower img8.jpg, The Powder Tower in Prague Pulverturm Oldenburg.jpg, Pulverturm in Oldenburg with remains of the old town wall Pulverturm Wiedenbrück, Außen.jpg, Pulverturm Wiedenbrück, exterior view Landsberg Befestigung 8.jpg, Pulverturm in Landsberg am Lech Lindau-pulverturm.jpg, Pulverturm in Lindau Pulverturm neumarkt.jpg, Pulverturm in Neumarkt in the Upper Palatinate Pulverturm (Riga).JPG, Pulverturm in Riga PulverturMM.jpg, Pulverturm in Memmingen Langer_Turm1.JPG, Langer Turm in Aachen Pulverturm Linz am Rhein.jpg, Pulverturm in Linz am Rhein Pulverturm_Rottenburg_01.JPG, Pulverturm in Rottenburg/Neckar Pulverturm Johanngeorgenstadt.jpg, Pulverturm in Johanngeorgenstadt Pulverturm otjimbingwe namibia 2012.jpg, Pulverturm in

Otjimbingwe Otjimbingwe (also: Otjimbingue) is a settlement in the Erongo Region of central Namibia. It has approximately 8,000 inhabitants. History The area was already a temporary settlement of some Herero in the early 18th century. Their chief Tjiponda c ...

, Namibia Pulverturm_in_Zofingen.jpg, Pulverturm in Zofingen Zwickau city wall with powder tower (aka).jpg, Pulverturm in Zwickau

External links

{{Wiktionary ! Fortified towers by type